Radiating fin

ABSTRACT

A radiating fin includes a main body, on which at least one reinforcing section is formed. The reinforcing section is sunken into a first side of the main body and correspondingly protruded from an opposite second side of the main body. With the reinforcing section formed on the main body, the radiating fin can have largely enhanced structural strength and increased heat-radiating area.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a radiating fin, and more particularly to a radiating fin having at least one reinforcing section formed thereon to thereby have a largely enhanced structural strength and increased heat-radiating area.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

With the quick development in electronic information technologies, various kinds of 3C products, such as computers, notebook computers, etc., have become highly popularized and widely employed in various fields. While these 3C products have been designed to provide highly increased operating and processing speed as well as expanded storage capacity, they are also subject to the risk of becoming damaged due to the high temperature caused by the high-speed operation of the electronic components in the 3C products.

Taking a computer as an example, when the computer is started, a central processing unit (CPU) inside the computer will operate at high speed and produce a large amount of heat, which tends to result in unstable conditions of CPU to cause, for example, unexpected shutdown of the computer or even a burned-out CPU. Moreover, to solve the problem of electromagnetic radiation, most of the important components of the computer are enclosed in a case. The case also prevents the heat produced by the CPU from quickly dissipating into ambient air. Therefore, it is desirable to develop an effective way for quickly conducting and dissipating the heat produced by the CPU and other heat-producing electronic elements in the enclosure.

A most common way for dissipating the heat produced by the CPU is to mount a heat sink to the CPU. The heat sink has one side provided with a plurality of radiating fins, and another side in direct contact with the CPU for transferring the heat produced by the CPU to the radiating fins. The heat sink can further include a fan for forcing airflow through the radiating fins, so that the produced heat can be more quickly radiated and dissipated into ambient air.

FIGS. 1A and 1B show a conventional radiating fin 11. The radiating fin 11 is made of a flat sheet material and has two opposite ends bent into two skirt portions 111. In the course of pressing the sheet material to form the skirt portions 111, it often takes place that the radiating fin 11 is bent, twisted or otherwise deformed due to insufficient structural strength of the flat sheet material and uneven distribution of the pressing force over the radiating fin 11.

Moreover, when a plurality of radiating fins 11 is stacked to form a radiating fin assembly 1 as that shown in FIG. 1B, a heat dissipating space 113 is formed between any two adjacent radiating fins 11. The radiating fin assembly 1 is able to radiate heat, so that a heat source is diffused outward. However, since the conventional radiating fin 11 has an upper and a lower plane surface that provide a relatively small heat-radiating area, only a limited heat-dissipating effect can be achieved by the radiating fin 11.

In brief, the conventional radiating fin and the radiating fin assembly formed therefrom have the following disadvantages: (1) having insufficient structural strength and being easily subjected to damage; (2) being easily become deformed in the course of forming the skirt portions; (3) providing a relative small heat-radiating area; and (4) providing only limited heat-dissipating effect.

It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop an improved radiating fin to eliminate the drawbacks in the conventional radiating fins.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A primary object of the present invention is to provide a radiating fin having enhanced structural strength.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a radiating fin having increased heat-radiating area.

To achieve the above and other objects, the radiating fin according to the present invention includes a main body, on which at least one reinforcing section is formed. The reinforcing section is sunken into a first side of the main body and correspondingly protruded from an opposite second side of the main body. With the reinforcing section formed on the main body, the radiating fin can have a largely enhanced structural strength and increased heat-radiating area.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The structure and the technical means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein

FIG. 1A is a perspective view of a conventional radiating fin;

FIG. 1B is a partially exploded perspective view of a radiating fin assembly consisting of a plurality of the conventional radiating fins of FIG. 1;

FIG. 2A is a perspective view of a radiating fin according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2B is a perspective view of a radiating fin assembly consisting of a plurality of the radiating fin of FIG. 2A;

FIG. 3A is a perspective view of a radiating fin according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG.3B is a perspective view of a radiating fin according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 shows three variants of the radiating fin of FIG. 2A;

FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of a thermal module consisting of the radiating fin assembly of FIG. 2B;

FIG. 6A is an assembled view of the thermal module of FIG. 5;

FIG. 6B is an assembled perspective view of another embodiment of the thermal module of FIG. 6A; and

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a heat sink including a thermal module of FIG. 6A.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Please refer to FIG. 2A that is a perspective view of a radiating fin according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the radiating fin of FIG. 2A includes a main body 21, a first skirt portion 214 downward extending from an end of the main body 21, and a second skirt portion 215 downward extending from another end of the main body 21 opposite to the first skirt portion 214. The main body 21 is formed at predetermined positions with at least one through hole 216, through which a heat pipe 32 can be extended, as shown in FIG. 5. In addition, the main body 21 is also provided with at least one reinforcing section 211, which is sunken into a first side of the main body 21 and correspondingly protruded from an opposite second side of the main body 21. With the reinforcing section 211, the main body 21 can have a largely enhanced structural strength and increased heat-radiating area. In another embodiment of the present invention, the radiating fin is not provided on the main body 21 with the first and the second skirt portion 214, 215, and the reinforcing section 211 can be irregularly or regularly formed on the main body 21. For example, a plurality of the reinforcing sections 211 can be regularly formed on the main body 21 in parallel with one another as shown in FIG. 3A. Alternatively, a plurality of the reinforcing sections 211 can be irregularly formed on the main body 21 to intersect with one another, as shown in FIG. 3B.

Please now refer to FIG. 4. With the reinforcing section 211 provided on the radiating fin, a recess 213 is formed on the first side of the main body 21 and a raised area 212 is correspondingly formed on the opposite second side of the main body 21. With the raised area 212 formed on the second side of the main body 21, the main body 21 is not subjected to structural damage or other destruction in the course of forming the first and the second skirt portion 214, 215 on the main body 21. The raised area 212 also increases the heat-radiating area on the main body 21. In FIG. 4, there are illustrated three variants of the radiating fin of FIG. 2A. These three variants respectively include a reinforcing section 211 having a semicircular, a rectangular, and a V-shaped cross section.

Please now refer to FIGS. 2A and 2B. A plurality of the radiating fins of the present invention can be stacked to form a radiating fin assembly 2. In the radiating fin assembly 2, the first and second skirt portions 214, 215 on the main body 21 of an upper radiating fin are located immediately above the first and second skirt portions 214, 215 on the main body 21 of a lower radiating fin, so that an air passage 217 is defined between the main bodies 21 of two vertically adjacent radiating fins.

The radiating fin assembly 2 formed from the radiating fins of the present invention can be further associated with at least one heat pipe 32 and a base 31 to form a thermal module 3, an exploded and an assembled perspective view of which are shown in FIGS. 5 and 6A, respectively. The base 31 is provided on a top thereof with a raised section 311. At least one elongated hole 312 is formed on a lower surface of the raised section 311 in contact with the top of the base 31. The elongated hole 312 is extended through the raised section 311 with two ends of the elongated hole 312 communicating with two open-topped grooves 313, which are formed on the top of the base 31 to extend from two outer ends of the elongated hole 312. A bottom surface 310 of the base 31 is in contact with at least one heat-producing element (not shown), so that heat produced by the heat-producing element can be transferred to the base 31.

The heat pipe 32 includes at least one heat absorption section 320 and at least one heat conduction section 321. The heat absorption section 320 is extended through the elongated hole 312 on the base 31 below the raised section 311 to lie in the two grooves 313. The heat conduction section 321 has an end connected to the heat absorption section 320 and another opposite end upward extended through the through holes 216 on the main bodies 21 of the stacked radiating fins to connect the main bodies 21 with the heat pipe 32. The heat produced by the heat-producing element is first transferred to the heat absorption section 320 of the heat pipe 32 via the base 31, and then transferred to the heat conduction section 321 and accordingly, the radiating fin assembly 2 via the heat absorption section 320. Heat transferred to the radiating fin assembly 2 is then dissipated into ambient air from the radiating fins. The raised areas 212 of the reinforcing sections 211 on the main bodies 21 give the radiating fin assembly 2 an increased heat-radiating area to enhance the heat dissipating effect thereof.

FIG. 6B shows another embodiment of the thermal module 3, in which each of the main bodies 21 of the radiating fins forming the radiating fin assembly 2 has three reinforcing sections 211. However, it is understood the number of the reinforcing sections 211 on the main body 21 is not limited to three, but can be one, two, three, four, or more. It is also understood any structure that can be used to enhance the structural strength and increase the heat-radiating area of the main body 21 is included in the scope of the reinforcing section 211.

Please further refer to FIGS. 5 and 7 at the same time. A fan 5 can be further associated with the thermal module 3 to form a heat sink 4. The fan 5 is located at one side of the radiating fin assembly 2 between the first and the second skirt portion 214, 215 of the main bodies 21. When the fan 5 operates to force heat-dissipating airflows into the air passages 217 in the radiating fin assembly 2, the recesses 213 of the reinforcing sections 211 at the first side of the main bodies 21 are helpful in concentrating the heat-dissipating airflows for the same to smoothly and regularly flow through the passages 217. On the other hand, the raised areas 212 of the reinforcing sections 211 at the second side of the main bodies 21 are helpful in increasing the heat-radiating area on the radiating fin assembly 2 and accordingly, largely enhancing the heat-radiating efficiency of the heat sink 4.

Therefore, as aforesaid, the raised areas 212 on the main bodies 21 increase the heat-radiating area of the radiating fin assembly 2, and the recesses 213 on the main bodies 21 help in guiding and concentrating the heat-dissipating airflow produced by the fan 5, enabling the heat sink 4 to have largely upgraded heat dissipation efficiency.

In conclusion, the radiating fin of the present invention and the thermal module formed therefrom have the following advantages: (1) increased structural strength; (2) increased heat-radiating area; and (3) improved heat-radiating effect.

The present invention has been described with some preferred embodiments thereof and it is understood that many changes and modifications in the described embodiments can be carried out without departing from the scope and the spirit of the invention that is intended to be limited only by the appended claims. 

1. A radiating fin, comprising a main body having at least one reinforcing section provided thereon, and the reinforcing section being sunken into a first side of the main body and correspondingly protruded from an opposite second side of the main body.
 2. The radiating fin as claimed in claim 1, wherein the main body is formed along an end thereof with a downward extended first skirt portion and along another end with a downward extended second skirt portion opposite to the first skirt portion.
 3. The radiating fin as claimed in claim 1, wherein the reinforcing section creates a recess on the first side of the main body and a corresponding raised area on the second side of the main body.
 4. The radiating fin as claimed in claim 1 or 3, wherein the reinforcing section has across-sectional shape selected from the group consisting of a semicircular, a rectangular, and a V-shaped cross section.
 5. The radiating fin as claimed in claim 1, wherein the main body has at least one through hole formed thereon.
 6. The radiating fin as claimed in claim 1, wherein, in the case of more than one reinforcing section is formed on the main body, the reinforcing sections are regularly arranged on the main body.
 7. The radiating fin as claimed in claim 1, wherein, in the case of more than one reinforcing section is formed on the main body, the reinforcing sections are irregularly arranged on the main body.
 8. A thermal module, comprising: a base; a heat pipe including at least one heat absorption section and at least one heat conduction section, and the heat absorption section being associated with the base; and a radiating fin assembly consisting of a plurality of stacked radiating fins; the heat conduction section being extended through the stacked radiating fins to connect the radiating fins to one another; and each of the radiating fins having a main body, on which at least one reinforcing section is formed, so that the reinforcing section is sunken into a first side of the main body and correspondingly protruded from an opposite second side of the main body.
 9. The thermal module as claimed in claim 8, wherein the reinforcing section has a cross-sectional shape selected from the group consisting of a semicircular, a rectangular, and a V-shaped cross section.
 10. The radiating fin as claimed in claim 8, wherein, in the case of having more than one reinforcing section provided on each of the radiating fins, the reinforcing sections can be regularly or irregularly arranged on the main bodies of the radiating fins. 